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Woman Who Choked Cowell's Ex Was Getting Revenge For Abdul

As Rock Daily reported yesterday, American Idol judge Simon Cowell's ex-girlfriend Terri Seymour was assaulted following Tuesday night's performance show. Now the 33-year-old woman who choked Seymour is speaking to Radar Online from jail — and reveals the motive behind her attack was revenge for Paula Abdul.

Janice Thibodeaux tells Radar Online, "I wasn't cool with Simon Cowell choking Paula Abdul on the show last week and with her crying-out 'help' as he did so," referring to Cowell mock-attacking Abdul during judging. "Nobody said anything about that so I wanted to confront him about it because that is not appropriate behavior, is it?" Thibodeaux also claimed she was a former security guard at AI and bought a ticket to attend the Tuesday showdown between Adam Lambert and Kris Allen. When she saw Seymour in the crowd, Thibodeaux decided to confront her instead of Cowell.

"She was taking some photographs with her camera and I knew she was his girlfriend so I went up to her to tell her how I felt. We started arguing and then I put my hands around her neck and started choking her just like Simon had done with Paula," Thibodeaux explained. "Then I walked away and I was tackled by the police but I don't regret what I did because of what Simon did to Paula, nobody seemed to care about that." Thibodeaux is being held on $52,000 and has not yet consulted an attorney.

This isn't the first time Idol has run into trouble with a viewer. In November 2008, an obsessed fan of Abdul's named Paula Goodspeed died of a drug overdose in front of Abdul's Los Angeles home. Goodspeed previously auditioned, and was rejected, from American Idol in 2006. Prior to the audition, Goodspeed had stalked and written to Abdul for 18 years, a fact overlooked by producers when they allowed Goodspeed to audition in front of her on idol.